TPP official signing due next month

Ministers of the 12 countries that negotiated the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal will formally sign the agreement on February 4 in New Zealand, according to a story in the New Zealand Herald quoting media reports and relayed by the TMA.

Andres Rebolledo, director general of Chile’s International Economic Relations Bureau, reportedly confirmed the date.

The TPP still requires ratification in national parliaments. In the US, President Obama is aiming to have it ratified by July.

The TPP’s implementation will mean the phasing-out of thousands of import tariffs and other trade barriers, the establishment of uniform rules on corporations’ intellectual property, a new code of conduct governing lawyers selected for Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) panels, and a tobacco ‘carve-out’ from the dispute system that otherwise will allow foreign corporations to challenge governments’ health policy decisions.

The TPP countries – Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the US and Vietnam – represent 40 percent of the world’s economy.